Tag Archives: northern

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Ocean & Coast

Breaking Wave

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Breaking Wave
“Breaking Wave” — Breaking winter storm wave, Northern California Coast.

Winter surf on California’s coast was so impressive between Christmas and New Year’s Day that it made national news. As happens this time of year, a powerful Pacific storm far offshore produced a huge swell. The biggest waves were upwards of 30 feet tall, and they created real danger to those who live at the coast and to visitors who ventured too close. Naturally, we headed straight over there to view (carefully) the power of nature!

The weather was pretty gray when we arrived, but the storm (which was less impressive than the waves) began to clear and rays of sunlight moved across the surface of the ocean. I went to a peninsula extending into the ocean, and from there I had close-up views of the action. I made this photograph as a huge wave rolled through one of those sunlit patches and began to break.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” is available from Heyday Books, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

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Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California

Spring Trees

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Spring Trees
Lush spring growth on trees and undergrowth in Northern California hills.

Spring Trees. © Copyright 2023 G Dan Mitchell.

Lush spring growth on trees and undergrowth in Northern California hills.

In much of California, early spring is the “impossibly green” season. New visitors to the state during most of the year are surprised by how dry it can be — there’s a lot of desert and the expansive grasslands go brown before summer begins. But visit in March and April to see a very different California, one that looks green and at times lush.

When I think of this green season, the grasslands usually come to mind first — hills with carpets of intense green, broken by a few trees and some wildflowers. But elsewhere the same transition happens. I made this photograph along an old favorite trail through a little forested vale in a local park where I go to photograph wildflowers.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” is available from Heyday Books, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

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Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

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Photographs: Central California, Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California

Winter Haze, Dormant Oak

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Winter Haze, Dormant Oak
A large oak tree backed by haze-obscured winter hills.

Winter Haze, Dormant Oak. © Copyright 2022 G Dan Mitchell.

A large oak tree backed by haze-obscured winter hills.

On a Christmas Eve when large sections of the country are freezing and dealing with blizzard conditions, it might seem almost cruel to share this Christmas Eve Day photograph from here in the San Francisco Bay Area, made on a brief hike in our local hills earlier today. In fact, I was wearing short sleeves. On the other hand, perhaps some of you would like to be distracted by a scene from a warmer, drier place?

This scene, odd as it may seem to people who aren’t from here, is typical of winter in this part of the West. The trees lose their leaves, though later than in other parts of the country, but then winter grasses begin to grow. The period from now through the next four or five months is our green season. Today the atmosphere was hazy, and the backlight made it luminous.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” is available from Heyday Books, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

Blog | About | Twitter | Flickr | Facebook | Email

Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

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All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Ocean & Coast

A Small Wave

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A Small Wave
On a day of quiet seas, a small wave crosses a kelp bed along the California coast.

A Small Wave. © Copyright 2022 G Dan Mitchell.

On a day of quiet seas, a small wave crosses a kelp bed along the California coast.

My recent photographs from Point Lobos have mostly used the grand landscape as the subject, focusing on central subjects set in expansive surroundings. If you are familiar with those locations you might have been able to identify the specific places where I photographed, and you might have recognized the actual subjects of the images. This is not one of those photographs.

This photograph could be from any of an uncounted number of places along the coast of California — or any other coastal zone for that matter. I think this photograph can work in at least two ways. On one level it is a “capture” of a real thing that happens in these places: we see the submerged sand and kelp through clear water, while the more turbulent water that follows the little wave reflects more sky color. But I like the fact that it also woks as an abstraction of shape, color, and form.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” is available from Heyday Books, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

Blog | About | Twitter | Flickr | Facebook | Email

Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

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All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.